Football players are particularly susceptible to injury in the area of the lateral (outside portion) of the thigh which is currently unprotected with the accepted standard configuration of current leg pads as stated by the published rules of the official governing bodies at all levels of football. In accordance with these rules, the typical uniform trousers or athletic girdles for athletes provide pockets in the garments for receiving pads to protect the anterior (front portion) of the thigh only. While present day anterior thigh pads provide adequate protection to that particular area of the thigh, they offer no protection from blows to the outside or lateral thigh region.
The present invention seeks to extend protection to the lateral (outside) portion of the thigh without necessitating modifications to the inside thigh pad pockets of existing uniform trousers or athletic girdles or requiring newly manufactured trousers or athletic girdles with a new configuration of pockets while bringing improved ventilation to the anterior thighs.
In addition, the present invention is designed to readily conform to the unique anatomical contours of individual thighs from the front to the outside region with normal garment compression and to allow these thigh pad protectors to remain in conformity with the legs through the full range of muscular motion (contraction and relaxation) without constriction or decreased mobility.
As separate protective devices thigh pads of one kind or another have been proposed, and some prior art configurations are depicted in the following prior art patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,599 issued in 2003 to Dugan, and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,082 issued in 1996 to Steward et al.
These prior art thigh pads required a separately manufactured athletic girdle and are not intended for use with the existing interior pocket configuration of standard football uniform trousers and athletic girdles. Nor are these devices suited for use with the existing configuration of standard and mandatory by rule football thigh protective equipment.
The prior art does include thigh pads specifically suggested for football with U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,686 to Zide being typical, but here there is no suggestion of how such a protector can be incorporated with or used in conjunction with present day football uniform trousers and/or athletic girdles in general without newly manufactured uniform pants or the modification of existing pants to properly accept the design for this type of protective thigh padding.
My own prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,565 issued in 1991 to Fratesi
U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,823 issued in 1992 to Fratesi
does include some means of lateral thigh protection, but the device described is supported by a separate movable locator plate, the focus of which is to rotationally adjust the locator plate in order to position the device in relation to the user's knee to ensure unrestricted knee movement irrespective of the final positioning of the thigh component part. There is also no design feature that that allows the hard thigh shell to expand or contract in order to contour to the user's specific thigh anatomy or to move with in relation to the wearer's thigh through the normal range of thigh expansion and contraction motion. In addition, the significant weight of the constructed referenced devices resulting from their comparatively larger size and heavier materials of construction proved such that it is unsuited for use in existing football uniform trousers or athletic girdles and required the use of a specially designed athletic girdle of sturdier construction and with a belt to add support from the waist in order to function properly.
Also, there was never any suggestion of mesh patterns for ventilation of underlying tissues in any of the molded components or padding.